Betten On Bike: DAY 92 - 10TH JULY 2013

Day 92 – 10th July 2013 - Lock to Cowell

Another cold morning and sadly no hot water in the shower block – not to worry there is a bright blue sky and early morning sunshine – so no rain – yet anyway !!

Just outside of Lock I noticed the ruins of an old stone farmhouse – beautiful in the early morning sunshine. Lots of sheep and vast wheat lands with huge silos and farms – so very green and so very pretty are these lush undulating green hills.

Cycling Stats: 120 kms

Cycling Average Speed: 29 kms per hour

Walter was happy with today’s ride – there was a light head wind and an undulating terrain with a couple of long climbs but all went well but he is very much looking forward to arriving in Adelaide for a few days rest. We are hoping that the weather holds as rain is forecast and with two more day of riding hopefully we will be lucky.

We stopped in Rudall (52 kms east of Lock) for coffee & fruit cake. Some cottages and some huge wheat silos and a railway crossing is what I saw.

Then another 20kms or so to Cleve, an interesting little town with intermittently placed loudspeakers in the 2 main streets broadcasting the local radio station. There was also a fascinating sign ‘Ticklebelly Hill’ which I felt compelled to drive up and see the view.

Back on the road and I passed a most beautiful stone historical building set in a wildflower setting in the middle of nowhere and the sign said Crossville School 1909 -1946. Later Walter tells me he counted 32 windmills which form Mt Millar Wind Farm. Another interesting thing I saw was a memorial to May Gibbs, (1877 – 1989) the very famous and iconic children’s book writer who created The Gumnut Babies and apparently her first Australian home where she lived in 1881 was located in this area between Rudall and Cowell.

We stopped for lunch about 20kms before Cowell and people we had spoken to had warned us that the hills before Cowell would be very challenging for Walter. I had driven on about 5 km and thought this is going to be tough for Walter so headed back thinking a substantial lunch would be necessary. I told him that I thought it might be hard going but later and all afternoon he has been enjoying the joke that it hadn’t been too hard at all – where are the hills Deanne ?

Arrived in Cowell nice and early – enough time to do the laundry and then explore the interesting main street of Cowell. Went into the information centre located in an old historical building and Walter was keen to buy a nice home made orange cake. Walter had been wanting to sample some local oysters for a few days now and today we stopped in at The Franklin Hotel at Cowell and he had a half a dozen oysters and said they were great.

Thank you to the very friendly lady at Cowell Foreshore Caravan Park nicely located in the township but very quiet who, upon hearing about our fundraising for Alzheimer’s Research, offered us a lovely powered site at no cost and also gave us a generous donation.

Tomorrow we are off to Lucky Bay to catch the ferry to Wallaroo – and Walter has 60 kms cycling from there to Port Wakefield which is 90 kms away from Adelaide.